The Anatomy of a Split Second

Personally, I love watching commercials. I never skip the channel in the middle of a programming because I enjoy the small 4-5 short stories that are shown in the breaks. One reason why I like them so much is because of the some of production techniques involved can be really cool and innovative. A lot of technique is necessary to pack a story while promoting a product in under 30 seconds. One method of catching the audience's attention is using inventive post production and graphic animation to embellish the commercial. I ran into this one commercial made by the BBDO branch in Ireland for the Road Safety Authority there.

I really liked how they used a simple looping editing technique to build tension and leave an shocking impression. Directing comes heavily into play here to uniquely tell a story using formal techniques. If this leaves you with an impression like it did with me, then I think it's safe to say this ad got its message across clear.

An Effective PSA

There are some really bad PSA’s out there but there are also some really good ones. A PSA's goal is to persuade an audience to take a specific action or adopt a particular viewpoint on a cause or social issue. 

What I think makes a bad PSA:

• It's not realistic
• The storyline is exaggerated
• It tells the story poorly
• It drags on for more than 60 seconds
• Instead of wanting to take action after watching it the audience is just annoyed

An example of a poorly made PSA

What I think makes a great PSA:

• It is empathetic and gives a sense of caring about a problem 
• It builds trust with their audience
• It tells a story
• It holds your interest
• It gets to the point in 30 to 60 seconds
• It makes you want to do something
• It actually gets the public to take action after watching it

One of my favorite PSA's: